Searching for Posada: His Workshop on Calle Moneda

 

Posada's Taller  (Workshop) c.1899

 

The image to the left is the way Posada's workshop looked about 1899. It is one of two photo images we have of the artist. Posada is on the right and it is generally agreed that the young man is Posada's son Juan Sabino Posada Vela who died in 1900. In our search for Posada we now believe that we know the identity of the third person in the photo. In the image below we see historians Agustín Sánchez González and Helia Emma Bonilla Reyna in front of the workshop as it is today. It is about three blocks from Mexico City's zocolo.

Posada's ex-Taller 2013

En la Taller de Editor Antonio Vanegas Arroyo

For the last week we have been filming in Mexico City, Leon and several sites within the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. In this photo we see one of the printing presses that beginning in 1880, produced thousands of images for the Vanegas Arroyo publishing house. Many were illustrated by José Guadalupe Posada. Until his death in 2001, Arsacio Vanegas Arroyo carried on the family tradition of printing. On top of the press is a little paper mache calavera dressed a luchador (wrestler) as Arsacio was also a well known combatant in lucha libre circles. It was that connection to lucha libre that helped result in Arsacio's support of the Cuban Revolution. In addition, to the left and behind the little calaverita is a photo of Constancio S. Suarez who wrote many of the stories and texts that Posada illustrated for Vanegas Arroyo.